Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Two

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James went into Armin's room. "Hey man, watcha working on?" he asked, seeing that Armin was sewing.

Ivor didn't really look that much like silence, unlike her extremely inhuman form, and indeed Kay's more freaky cat/sloth/raptor monster thing, Ivor looked a lot more humanoid. He had no tail, his wings were substantially smaller and a lot more useless and his face quite uncomfortably stuck somewhere well into the valley of the uncanny.
He slowly lowered his hands. "M... most... want... to hurt. Hear it.. in thoughts.. Monster... kill it." He averted his gaze and shook his head. "S.. sister can't talk... does... doesn't have... right... structure?" He wasn't entirely sure, there was some physical biological reason full blooded shifters were almost entirely silent. The only sound he'd ever heard either Silence or her mother make was a wierd sort of growling noise.

---

Matt shook his head. "no, we're stronger together. What'd you guys pick up on the way?" He himself probably had a lot of random shit in his pocket space but whether any of it was able to be weaponised, well. who knew.

---

Esk nodded. "With the smaller ships distracted that may be viable... " He looked thoughtful. Tactics like this usually fell to a commanding officer though, he looked to the dragon leading their party. They needed to focus on keeping these slavers OFF the ship right now, that was the priority.
"Let's make them regret this." He managed an unpleasant smirk as he shouldered his rifle.

---

Luka looked to Rigel. "What do you think Captain?" She was willing, but it was his decision.

---

Kay nodded, hoisting up his bag of supplies and heading to wherever Dawn was.

---

Mourn grinned at any troops that joined him. "We show slavers yes?" He looked weirdly excited.

"We can try anyway, if it gets too hairy, we can always retreat back here, right?" Rigel said to Luka. He wanted to try to help the others.

Dawn was waiting at the teleporter anxiously. She startled a little when Kay showed up but settled quickly. "Hey Kay."

The dragon leader would get them set up in a hallway where they had doors and a turn for cover and got everyone scattered to be able to use their weapons without hitting one another.

Another of the dragons talked to Vestia about leaving some of the star dragons that were in their dragon form in a hallway and depressurizing that hallway and all the ones to the airlock. They could fight without needing air after all.

Skye looked over to Ivor in his odd form then got up to walk over to him and Moriah. "No one here wants to hurt you Ivor, you can come back over here." She said gently.

Moriah frowned at Ivor's fears, and nodded in agreement with Skye. "She's right, nobody here's going to hurt you for looking different. We all look different one way or another, that's just what it means to be alive, right?" She moved slowly closer. "Can I help you with your shoes?"

~~
The androids showed Matt their collection of weapons, including a candelabra, some silverware, a few plates, and a stepstool. It... really wasn't the best collection, but it was something at least, right? They weren't good at this.

~~
Ethan and Ellie followed their dragon commander's orders, and both released the safeties on their guns, ready to start shooting. Ellie had her plant grenades on her belt, but she couldn't use them since she had no magic right now, so she would have to resort to more traditional combat techniques for the moment. Oh well.

'We are gonna DESTROY these jerks!" Ellie said. She was anxious, but trying to hide it as well as she could.

~~
Tala would get her own team ready, making sure Silence wouldn't run straight into the line of friendly fire when she attacked. It was important not to get her killed in some stupid way.

~~
"Good idea," Vestia told the dragon who suggested depressurizing. She'd help them prepare a trap for the slavers, and make sure nobody susceptible to vacuum would be harmed by the plan.

~~
Vestia was still trying to shoot at the biggest ship mostly, although several of her guns were down by now. She wasn't as effective as before, but she was trying to keep the big ship busy, and hopefully weaken it for the Silver Devil.

Luka nodded "Aye aye captain." She started the engines. Time to try anyway.

---

Kay hesitated at Dawn's reaction, then nodded his head and wrote [Vestia told me I was most useful with you. So here I am.] He looked anxious.

---

Esk glanced back at Ellie "Don't go running in blind alright?" He didn't really trust Ellie, she seemed about as half cocked as Matt was, which made her a liability in his eyes. Still, if she got herself shot, was that really anyone but her problem?
Hmm..
he WAS supposed to protect the crew... but she wasn't HIS crew so... technicalities?

---

Silence nodded, listening, tail flicking back and forth slowly.
Eager as she was she wasn't really that stupid.. hopefully.

---

Ivor stared at Skye, looking all the more terrified. He shook his head. He really wasn't at all comfortable in this form, he wanted to hide. All he wanted to do was hide.
He tugged uselessly at his shoes, claws made everything impossible argh.
He slowly nodded to Moira.

---

The group of Slavers on Tala's side started to break through the blast doors.

----

the group on Esk, Ellie, Ethan etc's side were a little slower to do so.

---

Meanwhile the group attacking the third airlock broke through that airlock and began the slow process of breaking through more blast doors. It would take time, but eventually all three groups would make it to either a hallway full of pissed off star dragons, or a hallway full of gun toting misfits.

---

The main ship continued to fire regularly at Vestia. Vestia was a larger ship for sure, but this one was one built for combat, not cruising.

"I'll do whatever I want," Ellie told Esk defiantly, then frowned, actually realizing what he'd said. Okay, she didn't want to run in blind and die, she just didn't like agreeing with Esk. That was fair, right? She didn't like him much at all.

~~
Tala's ears twitched forward at the sound of the slavers steadily breaking in, and she settled herself a little better into the cover she'd found, ready to start firing as soon as they came through. Between her, Shane, James, and the armed dragons, there was probably a pretty impressive hail of bullets coming at the slavers the moment they broke through.

~~
Moriah would help Ivor with his shoes, being careful not to startle the guy if she could help it. He was so easy to scare though, omg.

Skye nodded and backed off a little "Do you want a blanket or something?" Maybe if he felt he could 'hide' he would feel better?

Shane waited for the slavers to break through then took careful aim, shooting for areas that wouldn't have protection normally.

The star dragons in dragon form waited patiently, holding onto the ship for when the air tried to regulate itself with this depressurized hallway. If the slavers had no suits, they would be dead without a fight.

Esk snorted at Ellie's response. Moron.
He just shook his head and steeled himself for battle. No more time for chitchat, there were slavers to shoot.

---

Ivor held still, closing all three eyes as Moriah helped get his shoes off. His feet had elongated a little, toes curving into talons. No wonder his shoes hurt.
He hugged himself, he was frightened and disoriented and not being able to hear the thoughts of the two people near him, something he might ordinarily find a bit of a relief, he was just finding extremely distressing as he had no idea if they were being honest with him or whether they really wished him harm like everyone else had in his life.
He was a monster, and back home, monsters got killed.

---

Tala's group:

The slavers shot back but they weren't quite as covered as Tala's crew obviously. Those at the front line fell pretty rapidly, but those behind seemed to have no qualms with using their fallen comrades as shields, firing back with both tazers and energy weapons. Energy weapons had less risk of richochet out here, but were no less lethal.

their instructions were fairly simple. "recapture the star dragons, everyone else is worthless."
So yes, they were happily using lethal force here.

Those slightly less bloodthirsty of the first wave ducked down into any cover they could find and continued to fire, trying to drive the repelling force back or just flat out kill them.

---

The dragon group:

The boarders did have helmets and breating kits but not proper space suits so several of them ended up shot backwards, hitting their comrades and if they ended up out that airlock, they weren't going to survive long out there. Oxygen wasn't the only problem, the cold would probably get them first. It was a good strategy, several slavers did not make it any further.

A few held on for dear life to whatever they could, but this meant they couldn't shoot and were rather ineffectual at combat. One or two tried to shoot wildly anyway.

---

group "E" (Ellie, Esk, Ethan lol):

The slavers broke through and Esk took aim, going for vital spots. Neck shots were especially effective against helmeted opponents for example.

He didn't shout, he didn't yell, he didn't make a damn sound. He was utterly and completely focused.

The slavers shot back.

---

Moriah helped Ivor get his shoes off, then looked to Skye, "Yeah, if we have a blanket, can you bring it over? He might like it." Maybe, anyway. She really wasn't sure. She was trying to be nice to Ivor anyway, and she hoped he'd eventually realize that she and Skye really did mean well.
It didn't look like he was going to understand that very quickly though. Poor Ivor.

~~
Tala bellowed and started shooting, although she kept watching the slavers as they started taking cover and using what looked to be deadly weapons. That wasn't good.

James was also yelling and shooting, but he didn't exactly have the same impressiveness Tala did. Oh well.

Tala would keep her team in their current position for as long as she could, not wanting to let the slavers further onto the ship, but probably she'd have to order her team to fall back, seeing as there were a lot of slavers compared to her team.

~~
Ellie let out an unearthly screech when the slavers came through, and started shooting at them as fast as she could keep her gun loaded. He weapon was probably automatic, although it was smallish since she was smallish.

Ethan had to pick his shots more carefully since his gun was designed for longer range armor penetration.

The dragons would go in, using their claws and teeth to fight the slavers either to kill them outright or to knock them off so they would float off into space. They were not going back again.

~~~
The dragons in the other groups had to rely on firing their weapons and trying not to get hit by the tasers. Any that were would be knocked out, it was a bad weakness to have.

~~~
Skye nodded and went to find a blanket for Ivor to 'hide' in or under, whatever. She came back and handed it over to Moriah before moving back again. She didn't want to upset him, even if she wouldn't hurt him. He wouldn't have been able to hear her thoughts even without the anti-magic thing.

Dragons:

The slavers obviously hadn't expected the dragons to be that much of a threat without their magic, taken by surprise, the dragons would fairly easily take them out.
Though a few might get shot by the wild firing, of course, a few slavers were also shot by the wild panicked firing too.
It was chaos in this hallway right now.

Mourn was probably kinda disappointed he was missing out on tearing someone's throat out.

---

E group:

Several slavers went down but there were so many of them...

Esk reloaded and maintained cover, steadily and calmly picking off any he could.

There shere numbers though were pretty overwhelming. Each group seemed to have at least 30 men. The crew were quite outnumbered.

Still, Ethan and Ellie were doing a fairly good job here. Ethan's higher powered gun may have been slow, but it punched through rather a lot more than Esk's or Ellie's and did a lot of damage.
Ellie's wild firing too worked great as surpressive fire and soon the slavers were taking cover any way they could.

---

Tala's group:

Two smoke grenades were thrown down the hall from cover, toward Tala and her team. It wasn't just for cover, this seemed to be some sort of choking gas.
The slavers had breathing masks inside their anonymising helmets, so yes, they were going to attempt to use things like gas against the crew. Bastards!

Silence didn't have a ranged weapon, and she couldn't really charge into a gun fight so she held back, glaring at the slavers. When they threw something that smoked and made her cough she beat her wings and tried to get away from it.
She didn't like the smoke, it hurt her lungs!


---

Armin prayed hard. He couldn't disguise his fear. poor little luna, he'd tried so hard but he couldn't not be frightened here.

----

Matt decided against going over to Ivor because seriously the guy seemed pretty damn traumatised, he figured it'd only make things worse. Moiriah and Skye were handling it, they were far less intimidating.

Ivor opened one eye and watched the two women with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. He wasn't really sure what they were doing or why they were actually helping him rather than screaming and trying to hit him with things.

It was weird and confusing.

The dragon group would pull their people back if they were hurt then headed to try to take that slaver ship out by ruining the airlock if they could. Even if all they could do was shoot at it, that was better than nothing and would harm that ship, hopefully without harming Vestia.

~~~
Luna chirped, scared as Armin was more from not being able to hear anyone than from knowing what was going on. She didn't like this at all.

~~~
Skye gave him a small smile when he looked to her before looking away and up. She hoped the others were doing alright.

Kay looked at the message on his tablet. Asher again? He frowned, unsure what to say.
[Stay safe, please, stay safe.] He wrote. He wasn't sure what else to say. He looked to Dawn, chewing his lip.
[Asher and Nova are worried, he claims they can't teleport in which is a relief but i'm not sure how much to tell them. Anything will just cause them great anxiety and stress.] He felt hopeless right now, and very very unsure of himself. Dawn was sensible wasn't she? She always seemed remarkably sensible anyway, maybe she had a better idea.

---

Armin glanced to Luna. "Oh little One, I promise, I will do all I can to keep you safe." He came over to her, resting his head gently down beside her.

---

Dragons: The ship's crew opened fire on the dragons, or rather tried to as they pulled away from the airlock, whoever was in charge of that ship was sensible enough not to just sit there and let dragons tear at their own hull.

Poor vestia, she was getting shot a lot today wasn't she?

The dragons had done a damn good job decimating that boarding party though.

"They must have an idea of what's happening, with the antimagic thing and Nova's connection to Starr. Let them know, maybe they can get other help, claim these slavers are after the free androids to get the empires to go after them? I don't know."

~~~
Luna moved to press close to him, chirping softly. She wanted that contact since she couldn't hear anyone even her mom.
~~~
(They were shooting the other ship, not Vestia.)
After it was safe, they would block the airlock from being able to be opened (quick weld something so a seal cannot be made) then headed for the other ships and their airlocks to get them to back off too.

"Fall back!" Tala shouted to her team as the slavers threw in their grenades. She could smell almost immediately that whatever this gas was, it definitely not something anyone should be inhaling, and she knew most of her team didn't have any sort of gas masks to protect them.

She'd hold her position and provide covering fire as the others moved back, leading from the front lines was a common custom in many minotaur cultures, and anyway she probably had the most protective armor due to the sheer bulk she could carry. She'd just have to try to hold her breath as much as she could, and hope the stuff didn't hurt her eyes too much before she could make her own retreat.

An energy blast would hit her in the upper arm, her armor helped to block the worst of it, but it'd likely leave her with a painful burn.

~~
"Thank you, Skye," Moriah said, taking the blanket. She brought it over to Ivor. "You can wear this if you don't like us seeing you this way," she suggested gently. "Really, nobody's going to hurt you."

~~
Vestia had to resist the urge to cheer on the dragons who were out in space, since she knew that would just distract them. She was so proud of them though, omg.

~~
Ethan and Ellie were both pretty singleminded in their desire to kill these slavers. They'd keep shooting as long as they could, doing their best to not be easy targets as they did so.

Even with all their determination and a shared raw hatred of slavers, group E was probably going to have to keep falling back, pressed back by enemy numbers and the need to keep reloading their guns.

At least they'd brought lots of ammo.

Armin remained quite still, reaching out one hand and gently petting Luna. He was trying very very hard to believe this would all be alright. He had faith in Starr certainly, but much as he'd hate to admit it, his optimism was wavering badly.

---

Silence tried to fall back but she was a huge, slow, lumbering thing and a very easy target.
thankfully Shifters had thick hides, a few shots got her in the body and she shrugged them off, but she made a strange strangled growl of pain when something hit her in the far more sensitive and fragile wing.

The gas stung and made it hard to breathe, she tried to get away, suddenly far far less enthusiastic about all this.

The slavers continued to hold down fire, trying to drive Tala back as well.

---

Ivor looked up at the two girls, nodded slowly and reluctantly took the blanket. He didn't quite believe them about nobody hurting him, but hiding was good.

---

The slaver ship taking on the dragons was firing at the dragons, the airlock, vestia herself as it tried to unclamp and get away. This hadn't gone to plan, they hadn't expected Star Dragons without their magic to be such a threat and now they really didn't much want to let them get to the rest of the ship's crew.
They were going to try to take them out with the ship's heavier guns.

---

Team E kept having to retreat, take up cover and start shooting again but damn there were just so many of these bastards.
Esk was already running the numbers in his head and their odds weren't great here, not unless someone could take out that magical generator and turn the tide.

The slavers hurled a few flash grenades to blind the repelling crew members.

"Cover your eyes!" Esk yelled but it was possibly too late as the things exploded in a blinding flash.

----

Kay nodded to Dawn, he too was just not sure. The anti magic generator would make them unable to teleport here, but what would happen if they tried anyway? He didn't want to know, it could be very bad.
He hoped they hadn't already tried.
He hesitated, then wrote to Asher [We're being boarded, trying to fight them off. Stay where you are, please. If you can get help, send help but stay safe, please stay safe. ] He winced, and sent that.

---

Matt looked over the supplies, hmm, not much to work with. He picked up the candelabra and hefted it, it was pretty heavy, would work as a club. He set that down and went through each thing, trying to figure out if any of it could be repurposed.
He dug through his own pockets, extracting all the various junk and debris he picked up. A bottle of vodka was probably the most useful thing he had on him. "Don't suppose anyone has a lighter right?" He asked.

Starr was watching what she could on the bridge and trying to think of ways to help. "When all our people are pulled back we can do that depressurizing thing again or over pressurize, too much oxygen, like in Armin's room, even without fighters in there, it should work well enough. Oh, please tell Armin that Luna might get scared with not being able to hear me."

~~~
Luna stayed cuddled up against Armin, the physical contact wasn't the same as mental contact, but it was something and it made her feel better.

~~~
The dragons that were outside showed the use of their wings and tails as they flew through space, avoiding what shots they could and turning to take out the guns on the ships. They split up into three groups, each group picking a ship to attack with claws and teeth. Some might get hurt or knocked out by the weapons fire though.
~~~
Shane made sure he and Tala were the last to leave, moving back from the smoke then offering cover fire for Tala to move back too. "Come on."
~~
Skye nodded and offered a gentle smile before going back over to Matt. She set down some knives she had grabbed and showed the guns she had from the last war. She had almost forgot about them, but was reminded now. She did not have a lighter though, burnt feathers was not a good smell.

One of the dragons came over, handing a lighter to Matt "Here" He said simply before going back to his 'post' again.

Matt nodded. Okay, well they could make ONE molitov.. that was something.
Knives were useful too.

He smiled at everyone. "Okay guys, good. We're gonna have to get creative but we can do that right?"

Ivor wrapped himself up awkwardly, he could only use one hand with any degree of dexterity and most of that was completely undermined by the claws. He hated this form, HATED it. It made everything difficult.
He was struggling.

---

Armin would just slump there, letting Luna cuddle up against him, silently praying.

----

The third ship kept trying to shoot the dragons and soon the other ships joined in, trying to defend themselves.

One of them was smart enough to figure out they could electrify their hull.
Yay?
if that worked at all the others would follow suit.

Small fighters spewed from the large ship to try to tackle the dragons.

Looked like this was going to turn into an all out space battle too.

---

Luka got the Devil airborne, aaaand probably right into the middle of the starting massive dogfight. Great.

She tried to keep away from the ships, opting for stealth to try to sneak around while everyone was distracted.

----

Silence had found a room to hunker down in and was awkwardly trying to lick her burned wing. Ouch ouch ouch.

----

Tala would make her retreat as well once the others were to relative safety. “Blast door!” she bellowed to Vestia.

Vestia would dutifully attempt to close a blast door between Tala’s team and the slavers. Thankfully she had a lot of blast doors, they were kind of useful to give the defenders some time to regroup.

~~
Moriah, being the extremely inflexible pacifist she was, stuck with Ivor and tried to help him with the blanket, trying to ignore that the others were planning to fight.

The other androids would probably be willing to pitch in and follow orders at least, even if they didn’t really know enough to have useful ideas just yet.

~~
Vestia watched the smaller fighter craft come out to join the fray, and tried focusing her smaller weapons that were still online at them instead of the big ship

Her hull was taking a lot of damage in this fight. Thankfully most of it hadn’t been serious so far, and the worst damage she’d suffered had been from the collision earlier. That was the benefit of being such a huge spaceship, you could absorb a whole lot of damage before it became critical.

~~
Ellie didn’t cover her eyes in time, and the bright light temporarily blinding her. Ethan didn’t end up blinded, because he was a robot, but still hissed in pain and stumbled back a bit, because he was a badly designed robot

Maybe the dragons were okay though, seeing as they probably as a species had to be able to stare into stars sometimes.

Ethan would keep shooting after a slight pause, but it looked like Ellie was going to need a little more time.

~~
“Okay,” Vestia said to Starr, “More surprises for these slavers is always a plus.”
She’d relay what Starr had said about Luna to Armin.

~~
Vestia would tell Dawn and Kay that it looked like they might be needed by Tala's team.

Esk grunted, a little dazzled but thankfully not blinded as he'd managed to sheild himself in time.

"Ethan, grab Ellie!" Esk yelled and kept shooting, trying to cover them as they regrouped. "Fall back and take cover." These slavers weren't going to stop were they? and they were using the temporary distraction to press forward more aggressively. Esk knew they wouldn't be able to hold them much longer, there were just too many of them.

He took a shot in the shoulder and hissed in pain, his armor took a fair bit of the force but it wasn't really designed to protect against energy burns.
He gathered himself and resumed his firing despite the pain. He'd been trained to continue fighting even when injured, and so he did.

---

Tala's group:

The slavers were met with another blast door, which they set about cutting through as well.
It would definitely slow them down though.

Slowly but steadily the two boarding parties were making progress.

----

Ivor managed to get most of himself hidden under the blanket, peering at Moiriah suspiciously as she helped him. Nope, he didn't like not knowing what she was thinking at all.

He wanted Silence. "What... is happening?" He asked.

---

Ethan did as he was told, firing one last shot at the slavers, then helping Ellie down the hall to take cover behind a corner.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked her.

Ellie blinked and wiped her watering eyes, trying to make them work through sheer force of will. "Yeah, I just... need a few more seconds."

"Right. Try to recover fast," Ethan told her. He'd go to the corner to look out, seeing if the others were retreating as well, or if he should head back to the fight.

~~
"I don't know what's happening on the rest of the ship, I think the others here are trying to figure out ways to keep us safe here though," Moriah told Ivor. "It's all under control though, I'm sure."

There were just too damn many of them. Esk retreated, ducking for cover again.

---

Ivor didn't look so sure but he nodded and tried to pull the blanket up over his head.

Starr looked at the feeds worriedly then out to the ships outside. "We have to get them broken, make them retreat." She said, trying to think of what they could do without magic. Dang that tech, she hated it.

~~~
Shane helped the retreat then glanced around at the others once they were safe for the moment. "Anyone that's too injured, head for the transporter." They didn't need an injured person holding them back. He sighed and moved to the door, pulling stuff from his pockets and making what would amount to a smoke bomb to blind their attackers when they cut through. He quickly moved back again and got ready to shoot again.
~~~
The dragons had a real fight now with these smaller ships, but they would try to get them to fire when they would hit their own ships without getting hit themselves. More of them were getting knocked out though.

Ethan would fire a few shots at the slavers if they followed too quickly, trying to cover for Esk and the others as they retreated to where he and Ellie were. He was realllly careful not to accidentally shoot one of their own though.

Ellie was recovering now, she was still blinking the spots out of her eyes, but she could see again. Pretty much.

~~
Moriah smiled a little at that. Poor Ivor was kind of cute, in a terrifying demonic sort of way. She liked him, no matter how scary he might look, he was definitely harmless.

~~
"Once that anti-magic generator is down, we should have an advantage, right?" Vestia asked Starr. "Do you think the Silver Devil and the dragons can take it down?" She added, "I have some shuttles, and some have a basic autopilot function. We could send some in as a diversion." They're probably all get destroyed, but she could live with that loss if it got them out of this situation free and alive.

~~
"How many wounded do we have?" Tala asked one of the other star dragons, wanting to get an idea of how many people her team still had, who were still in fighting condition. She went to look out for when the slavers broke through, ready to start shooting again. Her arm throbbed, but the shot had cauterized the injury as it hit, so she was fiiiine.

"You okay?" Esk asked Ellie flatly, keeping an eye on the soldiers. "We can't hold this." What were they supposed to do? He'd run their odds, they weren't good, but right now all they could do was try to slow them down.
They needed more men, or more doors, or just more.. anything.

---

"Too quiet..." Ivor murmured, something he never thought he'd say. Huh.

Matt was working out booby traps, in case those bastards got this far.

---

Silence was trying to lick her wounds but it wasn't that easy to do. Her wing hurt, bad. She was actually rather frightened now, the bravado and blood thirst from earlier having been rather destroyed by the reality of actual combat.
she'd never really fough before.

---

Tala's group:

The slavers broke through the blast doors after not such a long time, and probably the first few stumbled straight into Shane's smoke bomb.

It would disrupt their vision somewhat, meaning they had to instead rely on their thermal imaging which was somewhat less easy to shoot at people using.
Still, they fired mostly blindly ahead because the only things in front of the front line were Vestia's crew.

those behind hurled a few more gas bombs which seemed to work pretty well. Their aim was to press ever forward till they sent the repelling crew running, at which point they'd be able to spread out better.

first they had to get out of these narrow straight corridors though.

---

Star Dragons:

The plan worked, mostly. It was absolute chaos out in space with ships shooting other ships, shooting dragons, crashing into one another or dragons and so on.

With the dragons mostly distracted, the slaver ship tried to clamp back onto the airlock and invade again.

The biggest ship seemed to be waiting for something while it continued to fire on Vestia and any dragons that got too close.

"We should focus on the big ship, that way we are less likely to hurt the dragons and may even be able to take out that anti-magic field. If it goes down then I can use my magic, though as a warning, I might pass out, it's been a while since I did anything really big like this." Rigel had a plan, but it depended on getting the anti-magic field down.
~~~
Tala's group
"We are only down a couple, the rest are minor injuries or like yours." The dragon replied. He and the others had nothing to shoot at but enemies also, so when they broke through, they started shooting again.
~~~
Starr nodded "Yes, once it is down, we can destroy them all." She stated. She was getting mad already, and this time it was simply her own anger instead of her people's anger. "We could send the shuttles out, but I think we should focus them on getting the wounded out of there instead if we can." She wished she had her shuttle now, but wishes were useless right then.
~~~
It was hard to hit the tiny dragons with the big ship guns, but not impossible, as they were proving. A couple made it to the guns to start trying to take them out without getting shocked, which was much easier said than done.

Luka frowned, but she nodded. "alright... " She tried to keep out of the fray, sneaking closer to the big ship. She was worried about Rigel though, pass out? that didn't sound good.

---

The 3rd ship managed to clamp back onto the airlock but was under attack by the dragons.

Still, dragons out here meant no dragons inside.

They'd have a bit of trouble getting through all the doors and the damage this firefight had done but they sent foot troops out anyway, to resume cutting through and getting down those corridors.

Meanwhile the ship itself couldn't really defend itself that well from the dragons tearing at it, though the electrified hull helped, they'd start suffering serious power drain if they kept it up long term.

a few smaller ships came to help, trying to shoot the dragons down but as soon as the troops were safely on Vestia, the ship would unclamp and try to get away. They were sitting ducks otherwise.

Maybe Mourn would get to stab some people after all. Horah?

"I'm fine," Ellie said. She pretty much was by now, her eyes weren't watering too much any more.

"Maybe we should retreat," Ethan said. "Have Vestia seal every blast door on the floor to keep the slavers busy, while we go help out somewhere else." He didn't know if there was any chance that could work, but they certainly weren't going to win by staying here.

~~
"Hang in there, Ivor," Moriah told him. "It'll be okay."

The other androids were helping Matt, by setting up whatever tripwires and barriers they could. They wanted to help protect the ship if they could.

~~
"Someone, tell Silence to go to medical," Tala barked. She started shooting at the slavers as they broke through, and would pull her team back again at the gas grenades. "Vestia, get us water and cloths!" she shouted. If the slavers were going to make a habit of throwing these things, then her team needed some sort of protection from inhaling the gas.

~~
"All right, we can use the shuttles to distract while some of the dragons get the wounded to safety, maybe?" Vestia suggested. She was getting the shuttles ready, setting their autopilot functions up. "I don't think the shuttles are smart enough to rescue the dragons themselves."

~~
---Hey Mourn, the slavers are breaking in again, I think it's your time to shine--- Vestia said. She queued up a song with a very heavy bass beat, and readied her bots to help the felid out.

She also made sure everything was properly pressurized, she didn't want Mourn to die in vacuum accidentally.